Roll the dice with Palmer instead of Brady? rationale inside...

9 time out of 10 I'm a NBYS guy, but I'm wondering if I'm not set up for the 1/10 this week. I'm 7-3 lockind in the playoffs... going up against the division leader 8-1-1. Only way to a first round bye starts with beating him this weekend. Problem is he's got a ton of juicy matchups, Foster/Jac, Colston/Oak, D Martin/Car, Wayne/NE to name a few, while my "studs" in Forte/Marshall lock up with SF, Bowe, T Smith, Mathews all have less than ideal matchups as well. By ESPN projections with our league scoring I'm a 39 pt 'dog for this matchup. I need a monster game from my QB and some luck as well to have any chance this week.

All that said, do I consider Palmer against the horrid NO D rather than Brady vs. IND? By our scoring the only QB's who didn't put up 26+ on NO were Vick (21) and Cassel (9), otherwise there's been 3 games against of 26,28,29, and 4 of 30+ to opposing QB's.

On the other hand IND has only allowed 30 once (Rodgers 32), 21-25 3 times, and 5 times held opponents in the teens. However the only 2 'real' QB's they've faced were Rodgers (32) and Cutler (25)... otherwise it's been Gabbert 2x, Sanchez, Weeden, Tannehill, Ponder, Hasselbeck...

Go with MY stud against IND who was lit up by the only other stud they faced, or go with Palmer against NO, who gets lit up by everybody? If it were the playoffs I'd play Brady without even thinking, but trying to work towards a bye with nothing to lose by losing... roll the dice?

I'd go with Palmer.. Brady is typically a sure bet and will get a decent amount of points but Welker did not practice thurs, Branch out, Gronk and lloyd have been limited with Hernandez still not a lock to play

Might be a game time decision for me... seems to be a split vote at the moment. Fortunately he has Ryan, Foster, Gonzo, Martin, K and D going in early games. I should have an idea of what I'm up against before I need to set my QB since both Brady and Palmer play late games (along with most of my lineup)... Probably end up going Palmer if I need a miracle, Brady if it doesn't look too bad.

Tough one. I'd say Palmer has the bigger upside, and you need points. But Palmer can be a big disappointment; Brady's the more sure thing. Also, if Indy has problems on offense, Oakland will turn to the running game and that will hurt. You won't have that concern with Brady...

As the early games were drawing to a close I was closer than I expected to be... Foster, Ryan, Gonzo all had down days for his squad... but I also took a 0 from Dwayne Bowe. Against my better judgement and probably against what I planned to do given the situation I still played Palmer looking for the big points.

Palmer 24
Brady 31

Although it would basically have been a wash had Myers held on to the TD that went through his hands and was picked. Fortunately Wayne and Colston didn't do much either for him and Danario Alexander's last drive and TD put me over the top with Forte and Marshall still to go, so I'm coming out on top either way.

Moral of the story is I will stick with Brady the rest of the way unless he dies between now and the end of the season.